Some time ago I mentioned something about booming cannon in our rear a few days after leaving General Kemp, with whom we had spent a most pleasant week. It was this very General Kemp, who was always seeking a fight, that caused all that noise which so puzzled us. Shortly after we left, General Kemp's scouts reported an English column moving about from farm to farm and destroying all of them. He had his men saddle their horses, and off they went in search of this column. They found it at Vlakfontein, where Major Pretorius and I had slept the day after leaving General Kemp. He set the grass on fire to conceal his men in smoke, advanced to within short range, surprised General Dixon and his 1,500 men, and in a short time put them to flight. General Kemp killed and wounded over 200, captured more than 100 men and horses, and took two cannon, which they turned on the fleeing column. This was a good piece of work accomplished by General Kemp and his 400 burghers. General Dixon and his men never stopped running till far away from all danger, for they supposed that Kemp must have had two or three thousand men. No better men ever lived than those Krugersdorp men, and, taking the war from start to finish, I believe they did more and harder fighting than any other commando in the field. Like the Johannesburg boys they were brave, reckless, dashing patriots who defeated the English in many battle-fields. General Beyers in the north troubled Pietersburg a great deal, but no fighting of any consequence took place. He had with him a most capable man, in the person of Captain Henry Dutoit, who commanded his scouts. Captain Dutoit was an artillery officer and was nearly torn to pieces at the battle of Modderspruit on October 30, 1899. He was patched up by such able and competent surgeons as Dr. Max Mehliss, Dr. Lillepop, and Dr. Wepner, and in some way managed to survive. A year afterwards some of his numerous wounds were still open, yet he was one of the most active and energetic officers in the field. He spurned all danger and fought like a very tiger to the end of the war. Now I come to the month of June, a cold bleak month with piercing winds. We had but one blanket each, no overcoats, no tents, no shelter of any description, and how well I remember how near all came to freezing stiff every night. Still we had to keep on the alert, for the English were on all sides of us. They had burnt the entire high veldt, and but a little patch of grass could be found here and there. All houses were burned, all property was burned, all the grass was burned, and the scene was a most dreary, desolate one.